The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-10-21
$56S,l52 81
THE RESEOED SAILOR.
GRAPHIC STORY OF HIS WANDERING
TOLD TO A CALL REPORTER.

James B. Vincent, the seaman
who was rescued by the Bear, is q
handsome looking man of fine physi-
que, of perhaps 20 years of age. He
was introduced TO "Call" reporter
by Lieutenant Kennedy, and told
the following story of his life with
the natives since his vessel was
wrecked till his rescue by the Bear.
left this port on December 10,
1884, on board the whaling bark
Napoleon, Samuel B. Smith master.
l shipped as boat steerer. We
went to Honolulu first, and then
proceeded north to the Arctic. At Z
P. NJ. on May 5, 1885, we were
wrecked on an ice-hoe forty miles
from Cape Navarin, on the Siberian
shore. The crew of thirty-six men
were divided into four boats, nine
in each. We were not able to save
any food or extra clothing from the
vessel. l was in the first mates
boat. The boats kept together that
night and the night following on the
edge of the ice. On the the next
day we separated during violent
snowstorm, accompanied by heavy
sea. Two days afterward my boat
fell in with the third mates boat
and we kept together, and in the
course of few days we sighted
land, about fifty miles southwest of
Cape Navarin, and tried to make it,
but got jammed in the ice.
TERRIBLE SUFFERING.
The ice closed around us and we
we're compelled to stay there
twenty-six days. We had no pro-
visions on the boats from the ship at
all. We caught two small seals,
which lasted up for five days, and
that is all we eighteen men had to
live on the whole time. The crews
suffered severely from hunger, frost
bites and exhaustion. During the
twenty-six days ON the ice nine of
our number died, two in my boat
and seven in the other. Our chief
mate, Wilson Rogers, went crazy,
and we were compelled to tie him.
At the close of the twenty-sixth day
the ice separated and allowed us to
get to land, which we did with great
difficulty, all being thoroughly ex-
hausted. On the 10th of June,
thirty-six days from the time of
leaving the wrecked ship, we landed
at an Indian village. We were the
first white men the Indians there had
ever seen. Cape Nayarin Is in lati-
tude 62o 80 north, longitude 1799
east, and whalers never touch there.
The Indians received us with ex-
IRENE kindness. Nine of us landed.
The next day five died, their feet
and other limbs having dropped off
from frost-bite, and from starvation,
etc. The survivors stayed there
during the summer, living as the
Indians did on fish entirely. The
Indians are known as the Chow
Chouans or "deer men," | being
best able to travel and not having
been frost-bitten, it was decided
that I should try to reach Plover
Bay or some point north in
order to speak whale-ship if posi-
BILE.
LOVELY VOYAGE.
I started with deer sledge and
twenty-five natives. The Indians
drove deer to kill with them. When
we got to the mountains, forty miles
from the coast, the Indians refused
to proceed and I had to return to
the coast. l arrived at the coast
again on the 1st of March, and
found my companions nearly dead
from scurvy. They told me they
had suffered severely during my
absence during the winter. They
had written letter and sent it to
Cape Navarin by an Indian to give
to some whaling ship, supposiDg /
would reach my destination. My
name was not mentioned in the
letter. Three days after l arrived
one man, Portuguese, died, and
the following day Mate Rogers and
the carpenter died. They were